Many interpersonal conflicts arises because different people have different motive and beliefs regarding a certain matter. Furthermore, the lack of proper communication and good understanding of each party's stand regarding that matter further complicates the matter.
Bob is the only child in the family and his father takes extra care in ensuring Bob is not in harm's way. He will demands Bob to reach home by 10pm whenever he goes out with his friends. Besides that, he is also very critical of whom Bob is hanging out with. However Bob feels that his father have no right to interfere on what time he needs to reach home as he has grown up already. He also feels that his father is making him look bad in front of his friends as their parents do not have a curfew on them. They have quarreled many times regarding this matter and Bob has stopped talking to his father ever since.
Question:
If you are Bob, what can you do to resolve this problem besides launching this "cold war" with your father?
I think Bob should not have cold war with his dad. Bob has to understand that his dad is taking such measures to ensure that he does not mix around with the wrong group of people. and being of such young age, Bob may not be able to judge which kind of friends are geniune and which are not. taking one wrong path in life may make him regret and ruin his whole life. im sure bob does not want that to happen to himself. what bob can do is, to give his dad assurance. have a heart to heart talk with him to let him know that he knows what he is doing and his friends are not 'bad' friends. he can also bring his friends home during festive seasons to let his dad judge for him. then his dad would know what kind of people his son is mixing with.
ReplyDeleteI agree totally with Kelvin. The reason parents lay down rules for their 'children'- in apostrophe because by the time you're in your late teens you may not consider yourselves childern- but remember this is your father or your mother and you will always be their child even when you are 50! So they care about you and what happens to you. I don't mean to sound preachy but you will only know how protective parents feel about their children when you become a parent yourself. But what kelvin suggests about bringing the friends home to meet the family so that parents can judge that they too are good kids from good homes will definitely be reassuring.
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